Holocaust Blame Turn For American Jews Schreiber

Explaining the Holocaust: How and Why It Happened, by Mordecai Schreiber, Mordecai Paldiel (Introduction). 2015

A Strong Indictment of Diaspora Jews and Their Indifference to Jews Dying During the Holocaust

Author Mordecai Schreiber is a rabbi. His book raises many topics, including the fact that the Jews of the Yishuv and the USA did very little to try to ameliorate the Holocaust. Neither did the leaders of the largest democracies. Contrary to the standard blame-Poles meme followed by so many Jews today, the facts are clear:

HOLOCAUST BLAME: PLENTY OF BLAME TO GO AROUND

Schreiber writes, “Unfortunately, there is enough guilt to go around in the case of the Holocaust to incriminate almost everyone—victimizers for what they did; victims for what they failed to do; those who stood by and did nothing; and finally Jewish leaders around the world who could possibly have done more but did not.” (p. 109).

Let us begin with the glaring faults of the western powers.

THE EVIAN CONFERENCE: BRITISH AND AMERICANS EFFECTIVELY GIVE HITLER THE GREEN LIGHT

Rabbi Schreiber comments, “One gets the impression of collusion between the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as the other countries, all of whom were looking to assuage their conscience and to appears to be on the side of justice and fairness, as if they cared about the fate of the hapless victims of Nazi persecution. The truth was different. Hardly ever in the history of the world was there a moment like that day in July 1938, when the Jews of the world found themselves all alone in the world, without hope, as if their fate was sealed. The road to Auschwitz was opened on that day.” (p. 40).

The British and American indifference was not lost on Hitler. Schreiber quips, “‘Nobody wants them,’ claimed the German Nazi newspaper VOLKISCHER BEOBACHTER after the Evian Conference. Gloating, Hitler commented, ‘It is a shameful spectacle to see how the whole democratic world is oozing sympathy for the poor tormented Jewish people, but remains hard-hearted and obdurate when it comes to helping them.” (pp. 40-41).

THE INACTION OF JEWISH LEADERSHIP DURING THE HOLOCAUST

The author summarizes his main theme, “As we shall see in the next chapter, during the Holocaust the leadership of the entire Jewish world, including the leadership of American and British Jewry, and the leaders of the Zionism movement worldwide and in Palestine, failed to act in any significant way to minimize the catastrophic dimensions of the destruction of European Jewry. Those who could and should have done more did not.” (p. 94; See also p. 97).

NO EXCUSES FOR THE INACTION OF JEWISH LEADERSHIP DURING THE HOLOCAUST

The standard exculpation is the one about the Jewish leadership of the USA and the Yishuv is the one about their being immobilized by the policies of western political leaders. Schreiber does not buy it. He asks, “When we look back on those years, we cannot help but ask ourselves whether, in spite of the conflict of interests with the British, the Jewish leadership in Palestine could have done more for the Jews of Europe.” (p. 98).

UNSTATED POTENTIAL IMPLICATIONS FOR JEWISH POLONOPHOBIA

Could it be that the long-term blame-Poland approach, of so many Jews today, is an attempt to deflect from the fact of their forbears doing so little during the Holocaust? It is something worth considering.